Members of Delta Sigma Theta sorority are celebrating their 100th anniversary with a series of events, including a Founders’ Day weekend that took place Jan. 11-13 in Washington, D.C. The centennial celebration touched off New Year’s Day when the sorority, which was founded in 1913 on the campus of Howard University, presented a float in the Tournament of Roses Parade in Pasadena, Calif., the parade that co ...

Former residents of Revilletown — an African American community torn down 25 years ago in Iberville Parish — are trying to preserve a cemetery founded by ancestors there in 1874. The cemetery, started by ex-slaves, is now within the grounds of a vinyl-resin plant owned by Georgia Gulf Corp., based in Atlanta. The plant is in the city of Plaquemines, 17 miles below Baton Rouge. ...

In schools today, Black students get suspended at a rate that is more than triple the rate of their white classmates. As the uneven enforcement of zero tolerance policies disconnect minority students from their schools, juvenile detention centers and in some cases, adult prisons welcome them with open arms. ...

The U.S. Postal Service is commemorating the 150th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation, which President Abraham Lincoln signed on Jan. 1, 1863, with a 2013 stamp. To celebrate this milestone, the Postal Service introduced a limited-edition Forever Stamp at The National Archives in Washington, D.C., which houses the historic document. ...

In what civil rights leaders across the nation are calling a “significant” moment in the civil rights movement, North Carolina Gov. Beverly Perdue has granted individual pardons of actual innocence to members of the Wilmington Ten. ...

In the wake of the unthinkable carnage that claimed the lives of 20 children ages 6 and 7 and six adults in Newtown, Conn., the lugubrious and grief-stricken nation promptly erupted in a furious debate over the question of what must now be done to safeguard children from baneful gun violence in schools across the country, in tank towns and big cities, alike. ...

Gov. Rick Snyder signed into law over 200 bills that came out of an unusually active lame-duck session. They include: - House Bill 5523, sponsored by state Rep. Paul Opsommer, protects the online privacy of Michiganders by prohibiting employers and educational institutions from asking applicants, employees and students for passwords and other account information used to access private Internet and e-mail ac ...

Standing silent on the steps of the state Capitol with duct tape covering their mouths Dec. 10, registered nurses who are members of the Michigan Nurses Association protested Gov. Rick Snyder’s so-called “Right to Work” law. ...

Matthew and Julie Hargraves accepted $10,000 to settle a discrimination case against the owner of a four-bedroom house in Okemos, Mich. The total settlement agreement of $10,500 also calls for $500 to be paid by the owners, Gregory and Effie Spiridakos, to receive fair housing training, according to a release by the Fair Housing Center of Southeastern Michigan. ...

The fight to impose a sales tax on online businesses is fizzling once again with the end of legislative session. The likely doomed legislation, sponsored by Reps. Eileen Kowall, R-White Lake Township, and Jim Ananich, D-Flint, would amend the sales tax law to include online businesses. ...